October Real Estate News

Home Flipping in Las Vegas

House flipping remains fruitful in Las Vegas, if not elsewhere

The nationwide slowdown in house flipping isn’t nearly as sluggish in Nevada. The Silver State had 1,014 single-family home flips in the third quarter, down 16 percent from the second quarter but down just 1 percent from a year ago, according to a new report from RealtyTrac. Nationally, house flipping fell 35 percent from the second quarter and 13 percent year-to-year. In the Las Vegas area, the volume of flipping dropped 15 percent from the second quarter but rose 9 percent from a year ago, to 780 transactions in the three months ending Sept. 30, the report found. Read more

Container Park brings unique design, shops downtown

If you’re looking for physical evidence of the capitalist-hipster culture that’s been imported to downtown Las Vegas, look no further than Container Park. The striking shopping center at Fremont and 7th streets is built from dozens of large, steel cubes, including nearly 40 re-purposed shipping containers. The entrance on Fremont is marked by a giant, metal, flame-spewing praying mantis and a dome-shaped theater in front of a plaza surrounded by the stacked, steel cubes and containers that will house stores, restaurants and bars. Scheduled to open as early as next month with more than 30 businesses, most of them owner-operated, Container Park is the physical manifestation of the Downtown Project’s promise to revive downtown Las Vegas through art, fashion, business and real estate development. Read more

Commercial properties seeing some better times

Revival of Southern Nevada’s commercial market is a work in progress, although 2013 has brought a spate of big deals. Plus, projects under construction should give the market an assist in 2014. That’s according to commercial brokerage Avison Young’s Fall 2013 Commercial Real Estate Investment Review. Investment volume in Las Vegas remains well below pre-recession levels, when prices were considerably higher. Investors dropped just under $1 billion on commercial properties in the first six months of 2013, with more than half of those dollars going to multifamily residential properties. For now, the market is on track to at least match 2012’s total of a little less than $2 billion in buys. But it won’t come close to the $5 billion in deals in 2007. Read more

New-home sales in Las Vegas slowing, but still up from last year

The Las Vegas home construction market softened last month compared to August, but overall, things remain stronger than last year. Southern Nevada builders sold 626 new homes in September, down 18 percent from August but up 6 percent from September 2012, according to a new report from Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research. August’s tally of 763 sales was the highest one-month total of the year. The median price of September’s transactions was $269,474, up 1 percent from August but up 35 percent from last September. Read more

Report says housing bust has silver lining: affordability

A new report points to a silver lining in Southern Nevada’s housing bust. The study, released on Thursday from real estate website Trulia, shows the vast majority of local homes for sale in Las Vegas are affordable to the typical household, thanks to the city’s recession-era price crash. And that housing accessibility could prove important to the city’s economic future. “Housing affordability affects economic competitiveness. Housing costs are an important part of doing business,” said Jed Kolko, Trulia’s chief economist. “Taxes get a lot of attention, but often, the difference in housing costs matters a lot more to whether businesses and people move, and to where.” Las Vegas has a pretty big pricing difference to exploit these days. Based on a median local income of $49,546, 72 percent of local homes listed for sale are within reach of the typical household. A family earning the median could afford as much as $241,000 worth of house and still keep its payment below 31 percent of income, Trulia’s report said. Read more